One of the topics I discussed while teaching a section of creativeLIVE's Social Media Bootcamp was the difference between pictures and photographs.
You may not know it, but I have a serious love for fish tacos. I don't know why, but on any given day I can easily sit down and enjoy several of these beauties. Even after eating amazing food around the world, a simple fish taco with a cold drink and a friendly conversation is hard to beat.
Yesterday, after teaching my class at creativeLIVE, my good friend Matt grabbed me to show me "his San Francisco." My camera is always with me, so we went straight from the studio to Muir Woods National Monument. It is impossible to fully appreciate the beauty of a redwood forest until you are standing among these silent giants.
"What do you know about The Hambletonian ?" That was how a recent phone call started for me. My answer was simply "nothing, what is it?" I would learn that The Hambletonian is an annual harness horse race dating back to 1926.
When I got the invite to attend a retreat in New Jersey, the images that filled my head looked nothing like the tranquil landscape I would find when I arrived at Brookmill Farm in Lambertville, NJ.
As a lover of travel and someone who is working on being hired to do more travel writing and travel photography, I've had fun getting to know some of the main players in the space. Last year when I was the keynote speaker at TBEX, I had the pleasure of first meeting Dave & Deb from The PlanetD.
I was asked by YSN to join them and the winners of the first ever Subway Global Challenge for a day of meeting the team at Subway Headquarters in Milford, Connecticut. It was a great day full of briefings and information overload from every aspect of the global business.
Every day I teach companies and organizations the importance of content. I explain to them that you never know when something might drive a sale. Every day I also get asked how to measure the ROI of content and social media.
Directly in the middle of a country-wide heatwave, I'm excited for the days ahead this week. Most of us will be cracking a cold beer, throwing something on the grill and spending time with our friends as we watch the 4th of July fireworks. I know that is exactly part of my plans!
The coffee has reached room temperature. The bitter bite reminds me that it is time to refill the cup again. Morning will not move forward without this action. Refilled I can once again type. Let the words pour forth with the hopeful goal of something worth keeping.
Later today I'm catching a flight to LAX for the final stop of the book tour for Amazing Things Will Happen . The life of a writer is an interesting one. You finish writing the book and wait. It finally hits shelves and you hustle.
Technology continues to enrich our lives. One look at this summer's Camp What-A-Wonder and all it will offer to families and you can't argue that the world we live in today allows children to wonder, learn and become educated in an unlimited variety of ways.
Canada is a lovely country and whenever an opportunity arises that will bring me across the border I jump at the opportunity. Monday found me in Ottawa and Tuesday in Toronto. Very different cities that both have always welcomed me in the past and I was eager to return.
As a writer on-the-go I quite often find myself writing wherever I find time to sit down and pull out my laptop for a bit. Today, I'm in Toronto and the view is not bad for crafting words as you can see. The road does tend to be a cruel writing partner at times.
I originally started writing a post about my trip to New York yesterday and how it reminded me of just how whacked many people's priorities are. The words were not coming to me, so I opted to fire up the microphone and record my thoughts instead of writing them.
My father-in-law loves cooking gadgets. On one of our visits he showed me a brochure for a new grill he thought sounded cool. I agreed and made some comment about how cool of an idea I thought it was. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when they packed up and moved out west and he found that old brochure.
There is no reason to text and drive and that is why I support AT&T's It Can Wait campaign. They asked me to share why I don't text and drive and I told them, "Because I have too many places to see and photos to take."
In a world filled to the brim with opportunities, we all have to make choices. Right now, I'm gearing up to fly to Toronto to speak tomorrow at Tweetstock. I'll be jumping back on a plane and coming home before I know it.
Late last year Kobo had me up to their offices to record an episode of Kobo in Conversation. This video series shares chats with authors from a variety of genres. They made special cookies to celebrate my book and my good friend Mitch Joel conducted the interview. Enjoy.
Why in a world where we carry a production company in our pocket and are empowered to share anything we create with the entire world do we still get hung up worrying about what people think of us?
Friends have heard me joke more than once that if Google and Apple merged I'd then only have one master. Yesterday as I watched the new Xbox One be unveiled, I began to think more about the allegiances I have to certain technology companies and how some of those are starting to shift.
I've been doing a bunch of speaking lately. The time away from home is never easy, but it is a sacrifice I'm willing to make in order to provide for my family. Plus, if I'm being honest, I love being on stage.
Any piece of technology that makes getting work done easier is one that I'll love. For years I've bought and been impressed with products from Plantronics. Since my iPhone is also my office phone, I've always had a Bluetooth headset so that I could talk and easily use my computer at the same time.
Never forget that we don't need a map to find our way. Yesterday, as I took my camera for a walk along the coast of Victoria, British Columbia I had no purpose beyond enjoying every minute of it.
Yesterday, I had to go into the city to speak at MUSE 2013, so I hit the road early with the plan to walk over and visit the Boston Marathon Memorial.
